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Show H I S T 0 R Y 0 I• M E X I C 0. BOOK VI. This great temple occupied the centre of the city, and, together -----.-.-' with the other temples and buildings annexed to it, comprehended all that fpace upon which the great cathedral church now .fl:ands, part of the greater market-pbce, and part likcwife of the {l:reets and buildings around. Within the inclofure of the wall which encompafied it in a [quare form, the conqueror Cortes affirms th, t a town of five hundred houfcs might have fiood (y). The wall, built of ftone and lime, was very thick, eight feet high, crowned with battlt:ments, in the form of niches, arldornamenteq with many ftonc figures in the fhapc of ferpents, whence it obtained the name of Coatepoutli, or the wall of ferpcnts. It h3d four gates to the fo~r cardinal points : the eafl:ern gate looked to a broad fl:rcet which led to the h1ke of Tezcuco : the rcfl: con·efponded to th ~ three principal ft1·eets of the city, the broadcfl: and the firaightcfl:, which formed a continuation with thofe built upon the hlke that led to lztnpalapan, to Tacuba, and to Tepejacac. · Over each of the four gates was an arfenal filled w~th a vall: quantity of otfenfivc and defenfivc weapon , where the troops went when it was necefiary, to be fupplied with arms. The fpace within the walls was curiou.fly paved with fuch fmooth and polifhed fl:ones that the horfes of thc.Spani~ lrds could not move upon them without flipping and tumbling down. In the middle was raifed an immenfe folid building ;>f greater length than breadth (z), co~cred with fquare equal pieces of pavement. The building confiil:cd of five bodies neflrlY equal in height, but differing in length nnd breadth ; the highefl: being narrowefl:. The firfl: body, or bafis of the building, was more than fifty perches long from eafl: to weft, and about forty-three in breadth, from north to fouth (a). The· • iecond · ' (.y) The Anonymous Conqueror fays, that what was within the wall was like n city. () o-mara affirms, that the wall was a very long bowfl10t'in length upon every fid e. T orqueutacla, ~lt!Hllt g h :tgrceing with Gomarn in book viii . chap. 1. fays afterwards in t·h. xix. th:~tlh c ci rcumlcren_ cc o~ the \\:all w:ts_ ah_ove three thoufand paces, which is plainly a mi nakc. Dr. I cr·n."!' dc_z, m lm pr:o!t:K dctcnpn_on of t,hc temple, prcferved in manufCI"ipt in the library of the E1cunal, and whrch Fath ~ r Nrcrcmbcrg hns made ufc of in his Nntural Hillory, nllows to rbe rhc wnl~, of every ftde, two lwndrcd 'l:olcd~n cubits, which is abl)nt eighty-fix perches. ~ z ) .~·~ha% ltn ma~cs the temple perle~; ly fquarr, but the Anonymous Conqueror, borh in the dcknptton and In the figure which he has left us, rcprcfcnts it to have hten of gr~atc r length th:rn breadth, like thul"c of Tcoti'IHmcan which fcrvcd as models for all the reO:. (a) S::hagun 1\iv~s to th_c firll body 11pon every fide three hundred and fix ·y To!tclatl feet,: ~nd ~hat •s th~ _mcalurc of Its length. Gomara ~~ivcs it fifty lira:uu, \vhich is the rucaf"ure •1f &ts bJcadth, 1 !,tree hundred a11d fixty Toledan fc.ct make three hun.~! red and eight J>arili:t\1, •_u· ~ lit· • .Pl. VJ . l'ol.l. l'rr.?" :~lh . |